Light(ish) User Question - New PC

[steveal]

I use my PC for surfing the web, to use my online broker's Trading platform, some Excel spreadsheet work (sometimes quite large spreadsheets), and editing photographs.
No games, no heavy video editing.
I guess I'm a light user.
Currently, I have a PC with an Intel E6420 processor, 2GB ram and a 500 GB hard drive running XP. To be quite honest it does what I want without too much protest.

However, I want to upgrade to Windows 7 (as on my laptop), and I'd like to try an SSD drive hopefully to improve startup and program loading, so I intend to take the opportunity to build a new PC.

I live in the UK, and want to spend around £600 for the box (monitor and keyboard etc. from my old PC are fine).
I want to achieve a measure of future-proofing, so thought I would go with an i5 Sandybridge processor (is the dodgy motherboard business a game killer?)

Here are my thoughts gathered from around here/magazines etc.

- Coolermaster Sileo Quiet Case With 500W Extreme Power Plus PSU (any quieter options around the £90-£100 mark?)
- i5-2400 processor
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU fan
- Gigabyte GA-H67MA-D2H motherboard (built in graphics, some USB3 ports)
- 4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz memory
- 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2E SSD
- 1 TB Samsung F3 Hard Drive

- Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit


It's likely that this is overkill for my needs, but I'm eager to know if I'm wasting money on any item, or if spending a little more on some parts is worthwhile in terms of quietness, program loading speed etc.

Thanks for any comments.

Steve

 

[oynaz]

The Sandy Bridge dodgy motherboard business is indeed a game killer. If you are satisfied with your current setup, wait until the problems have been solved.

Your build seems fine, BTW. The PSU is overkill, but 500W is the sweet spot. You might want to consider a quiet quality PSU around the 350W mark, but that won't leave you room to a future GPU upgrade.

You might want 8GB of RAM, but you can always upgrade later, if needed.

 

[WildW]

For your needs I would suggest just trying a Windows 7 + 2GB Ram + SSD upgrade. It should transform your PC's performance, and if you want to upgrade later then those things (except for the ram) would carry over anyhow.

 

[mnewsham]

I might OC your current cpu, add 2gb more ram, SSD, and windows 7

 

[VirtualLarry]

If the OP is doing online financial trading, I'm not sure I would recommend overclocking, but upgrading to 4GB RAM total, and adding an SSD and Windows 7 is a solid recommendation. I think that it could breathe new life into the existing rig.

 

[steveal]

Folks,

Thanks for the replies.
I checked with Crucial and with ASUS concerning my motherboard. The P5LD2-X "supports up to 2 GB of ram"!

I think it's time for a new system...

Steve

 

[mfenn]

Your build seems decent but I have a few comments:
- I don't know what a Vertex 2E is. Do you have a link?
- 500W is overkill, you need something like 350W. Cooler Master are also not known for producing top quality PSUs. Grab a case w/o PSU and get a Seasonic S12II 380W.
- DDR3 1600 is unnecessary, so don't pay a premium for it. You can go to DDR3 1333 and not notice a difference

 

[steveal]

mfenn,

Thanks for the comments. The SSD is shown here (UK site):

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225415

Thanks for the suggestions re PSU and memory.

Do you have an opinion about going ahead or waiting for a Sandybridge build?

 

[mfenn]

mfenn,

Thanks for the comments. The SSD is shown here (UK site):

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225415

Thanks for the suggestions re PSU and memory.

Do you have an opinion about going ahead or waiting for a Sandybridge build?

Ah OK, looks like they've just put the model name in wrong. I thought that they might be talking about a Vertex 2 EX, but the price is too low for that to be the case.

Scan.co.uk looks to have Sandy Bridge mobos and CPUs still in stock, so I'd probably go just ahead and buy one now and do the exchange program to get a fixed board when they become available.

 

[steveal]

I've bought my components and made a mistake ordering the ram memory.

Instaed of ordering 2 x 2GB, I ordered 1 x 4GB.

Options:

1. Return the 4GB and get 2x2GB
2. Keep the 4GB - dual channel for a lightly used machine like this isn't important.
3. Buy another 4GB stick and have sufficient memory for all time.

Any strong thoughts, please?

Steve

 

[mnewsham]

With RAM prices so cheap i would do option 3, BUT if you dont wanna pony up the 40 bucks for another 4GB then option 2 is find Dual channel vs. single channel is only about 3% difference in practice.

 

[fffblackmage]

#2

 

[mfenn]

#2 definitely. Dual-channel is of course preferred, but I doubt you'll really notice a difference in day-to-day usage.

 

[betasub]

Have you installed & tested the 4GB stick yet? Assuming it functions OK in your motherboard, 4GB + 1GB should work well with Windows 7 64bit.